Steering-knuckle.



o. H. Resins.

STEERING KNUC'KLE.'

APPLlcATloN FILED MAY 8.1917.

1,272,584. PatentedJu1y16,191s

INVENTOR.

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W l TNESS UNrrnn sra'frns PATENT onirica.

OVID H. ROGERS, 0F SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR T0 HIMSEIIF AND JACOB BRACK, TRUSTEES, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

s'rnnnmel-KNUCKLE..

Application filed May S, y191'?.

To all whom t may concern i Bc it known that I, OvrD H. ROGERS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sacramento, in the county of Sacramento, State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Steering- Knuckles; and I do declare the following to be a full7 clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the characters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this application. v

This invention relates to improvements in steering knuckles for the front wheels of motor vehicles. The object of the invention is to produce such a knuckle as will do away with the vertical bearing pins which are now used and the consequent lateral wear and strain to which they are now subjected. In the present form of steering knuckles a bolt or pin projects through the bushing on the steering spindle, on which. bolt\the spindle turns in order to guide the wheels in one direction or the other. In addition to this turning wear on the bolt the bushing ltends to strike against the bolt laterally and very quickly Wears the same so there is a large amount of play between the bushing and the bolt which makes a great deal of noise and is objectionable in a great many other ways. The aim of my invention is to replace the bolt and sleeve with a ball and socket oint, the socket being prevented from having rotary motion with respect to the ball and having only a horizontal turning movement for steering purposes. I hence provide a tongue secured to the socket and projecting into a bearing slot in the'end of the ball, which tongue will have a perfectly smooth bearing surface on the ball bot-h on its top and bottom which surfaces will support the vertical weight of the load and prevent any lateral play or wear on the ball and socket joint. Such supporting tongue will absolutely prevent any lateral play of the parts with respect to each other for the reason that it will support the socket and the wheel squarely in the center of the ball so that the weight and strain will be distributed equally throughout'the socket.

A further object of the invention is to produce a simple and inexpensive device and Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 16, 1918.

Serial No. 167,190l

yet one which will be exceedingly effective for the purposes for which it is designed.

These objects I accomplish by means of such structure and relative arrangement of' parts as will fully appear by a perusal of the following specifica-tion and claim.

In the drawings similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several views.

Figure l is a sectional View of the complete knuckle.

Fig'. 2 is a sectional view of the ball showing the supporting tongue therein.

Referring now more particularly to the characters of reference on the drawings the numeral 1 designates the front axle of the vehicle on the end of Which is formed a ball or sphere Q.. In the outer end of such sphere 2 is a horizontal slot 3 of a semi-circular shape, the slot being large enough to allow the supporting tongue 4 to swing a sufficient distance in either direction when the wheels are steered in one direction or the other.

This supporting tongue 4 has a smooth top and bottom surface which fits snugly against the top and bottom surfaces of the slot 8. The outer end of the plate 4 projects beyond the end of the ball 2 and fixed on such projecting end is a sleeve 5 on a socketed member 6, in which socket 6 the ball 2 is turnable. Rotary motion of the socket 6 on the ball 2 is prevented by reason of the tongue 4 projecting into the horizontal slot 3. The socket 6 and tongue 3 however can swing horizontally with respect t0 the ball 2 to allow of the wheel being steered in one direction or the other. The wheel 8 is turnably mounted as at 8 and 9 on the socket 6 in order to properly support the wheel relative to the said socket.

As will be seen the ball and socket joint supports the weight of the load and since the tongue 4 fits snugly in the horizontal slot 3 there can be no rotary movement of the socket 6 with respect to the ball 2. The possibility 0f excessiveJ wear of the parts is minimized and the necessity of the use of vertical pins and sleeves is eliminated. And further, a steering knuckle of the type herein described is more perfect and eflicient in its action and the frictional wearing between the parts is distributed equally over a Considerable area instead of coming directly against the bolts as is the ease in the present form of steering` knuckles.

lI4`romthe foregoing description it Will be readily seen that I have reduced sueh a device asisubstantially"fuligils the object of the invention as set forth herein. l v v While this specification sets forth in dei tail the present and preferred construction ofthedeviee, still in practice such deviations from such detailmaylbe resorted to'4 as do not form a departure from the spirit of the invention as defined by the appended Having thus described my invention, .what

Copies eilthpis patent mayv'be obtainedforire cents each, by addressing Y Washington, D. 0.y

I claim as new and useful and desire to secure by LettersPatent is:

An axle terminating in a ball provided With a slot eut horizontally into its outer end, a plate projecting into and freely movable through the slot, the faces ofthe plate bearing againstV t'l'ieftp Vand bottom of the slot, a socket member turnable horizontally von the ball and fixed to the plate to prevent the plate from pulling out of the slot and also to hold the soeket member against ver- Atical rotary .motionon the ball7 and a Wheel ovine; Roenes.

the ,ComiliissionerA of Pten't's, 

